Seeking Truth: A 'Heart of Darkness' AU
by Arianwen P.F. Everett
Summary: Leia Organa Naberrie Skywalker returns to Tatooine to visit Luke and confront Kenobi again, this time for answers.
1. Chapter 1

13

Disclaimer: This vignette is not meant in any way to infringe on the rights of Lucas Films or anyone else holding rights to Star Wars. It is merely a labor of love.

Authoress Note: This is another 'Heart of Darkness' AU with all due reverence implied for Cka3ka. His/Her work is wonderful and in order to understand this vignette, you must read HOD. In regard to HOD, this AU goes a bit out on a limb, assuming that Cka3ka intends for Leia and Pooja to return from the Meridian Sector and continue as Imperial Senators.

The key revelation in this story expands on an older, HOD-influenced, but not AU, story I wrote entitled 'A Murky Gray'. You can easily read this one without reading 'A Murky Gray', but HOD is VITAL if you want to follow this fic.

Special thanks to Vader's Fallen Angel for her assistance. I hope you all like it!

**Seeking Truth**

By Arianwen P.F. Everett

Obi Wan Kenobi felt the heaviness of the dark side emanating from his hovel in the Dune Sea and he sighed. He'd sensed her returned to Tatooine yesterday. He figured, as the Senate was in recess, she was here to see her brother, aunt, and uncle. The last time they'd met, she'd told him that she hoped they would never meet again. She must have changed her mind.

"No, I don't relish being here, but a Sith can't afford ignorance, no matter how blissful it might be," Leia Naberrie Skywalker stated, coming out from behind the private moisture condenser outside Obi Wan's small house.

Obi Wan could have sworn the girl was inside, not... ah, she must have projected her force signature into his home. That didn't surprise him. From their previous conversation he'd come to understand that her mind worked out complex scenarios quickly, and she was gifted at verbal misdirection, positioning her prey to come to the conclusions she wished them too without direct proclamation. She also disliked being analyzed by others, preferring to be viewed as unpredictable, which explained the why of her trick, but not why she was here with him again. Obi Wan figured the best way to find that out was to invite her inside and ask. "Please come in, Leia Skywalker."

"I need to know about my mother's death, Master Kenobi," Leia stated bluntly, as she entered the old Jedi's home. She sensed the man's brief hesitation in locking his door, but a moment later, saw him move to the tea set in the back of the tiny, three-room dwelling.

"I thought you said your father already told you about that," Kenobi stated, measuring the tea leaves he had on hand into two cups.

"My father can only tell me what he knows… or thinks he knows. Even now he believes that he killed my mother on Mustafar and that still sensing Luke and I in the living force, you… cut us out of her… deceased body. However, my foster father says that he witnessed my birth on Polis Massa, and that my mother was in labor and under the care of the med center's droids for almost an hour after you brought her in. Obviously, they both can't be right," Leia explained, attempting to be as delicate as possible about her mother's death, while still offering Kenobi the opportunity to clarify what she already knew. Her father only had morbid conjecture to go on. Bail Organa had witnessed Leia's emergence into the galaxy with his own eyes.

"Why is this so important for you to know now?" Kenobi asked, needing to understand the young Sith's motives. He was beginning to sense a change in the girl. Despite his hopes several months ago, the darkness in her was even more powerful, but it wasn't normal. It wasn't what he had seen in An.. Vader on Mustafar, or in the Emperor whenever he made a holonet appearance. It was almost as if… no. The light and the dark couldn't co-exist in one sentient being. The struggle between the two sides of the force, contained inside a sole, mortal body, would cause a massive explosion that would make Lord Kaan's thought bomb pale by comparison. This had to be another trick, although one whose purpose he couldn't figure out at the moment.

"I already explained that to you, a Sith can't afford ignorance, ever," Leia restated, taking the cup of tea Kenobi offered her. Gently touching the force, she examined the cup.

"It's not poisoned," Kenobi informed her, rolling his eyes slightly at the girl's suspicion.

"I'm sorry, but I can't just take your word for it," Leia explained with a sincerity she knew the old Jedi would be able to feel through the force. Having found nothing wrong with the tea, Leia tossed back the beverage in one gulp and placed the cup down on the table in front of her.

"Or any Jedi's?" Obi Wan teased gently.

"Actually, I take advice from a certain Jedi quite often, but you're not her. She's teaching me about the light side of the force. She's a good teacher. We're learning a lot from each other," Leia replied enigmatically, knowing she had to have peaked Kenobi's interest.

"Does your father know you have this teacher?" Obi Wan asked. He sensed truth in Leia's words, but also amusement. Once again, she was playing with him, as she had done months before.

"He does. He's not thrilled about it, and I've promised to turn her over to him once I've learned all I feel I need from her, but he's accepted it for the time being," Leia explained, leaning back in her seat, the amusement in her growing.

"What's her name?" Kenobi asked firmly, tiring of the game. He knew the girl wanted him to continue playing, but behind the amusement he sensed a cruel reality she was leading him into.

"How did my mother really die?" Leia countered, hardening her words to let Kenobi know she would say no more about her Jedi instructor until she had her answers, and she wasn't going to give him any information about herself or her motives for wanting to know either. She was a Sith, and if history taught her anything, rooted in the heart of every Sith was an unwillingness to defend their motives or actions to any Jedi, under any circumstances.

Obi Wan closed his eyes briefly, summoning the memory. Telling Leia the truth could cause him no loss, and if the girl really had a Jedi hostage he had to try to save her before Leia tired of her toy and gave another Jedi over to Vader for slaughter. "She gave up hope. The medical droids found nothing wrong with her, but she had lost the will to live. Luke was born, then you. She told me that there was still good left in your father, and then she died."

"But how? What did she die of? It certainly couldn't have been from force choking, not if she could survive long enough to reach the med center, then push out two babies," Leia insisted. This was important.

Obi Wan heaved a deep sigh. The girl was as tenacious as her father when it came to a mystery she needed solved. "I told you, the medical droid said…"

"Oh, Chaos take the med droids! What broke down in her body? What was happening in the force around her? Don't give me this garbage about giving up hope. Things like that only happen in bad holofilms!" Leia demanded, sick of Kenobi's vague answers.

"She passed out and moments later her organs just shut down, at least that's what I saw on the scanner read out. I didn't sense anything abnormal in the force. One minute she was exhausted but cognizant; the next she was dead. What else do you want me to say?!" Kenobi exclaimed, his voice having finally lost its long-practiced calm. He now realized that he had no idea what had killed Padme. Looking back, he had to wonder why he hadn't sought more of an explanation from the droids, why he hadn't demanded an answer from anyone as to why Anakin's wife had simply died in front of him for no apparent reason. Again he had failed Anakin and now, he realized, he had failed Padme and her children as well. Force forgive him!

"Like what happens when morichro is used on a non force-sensitive?" Leia asked, more gently this time. If she kept pushing Kenobi full throttle, he would shut down the conversation. A softening of voice might just slip him up and give her the most vital pieces of information that she needed. From what he had told her, she began to believe more and more that her hypothesis was correct.

Kenobi's head shot up to look at Leia and his jaw dropped in shock. "No! Morichro is a very advanced Jedi power; dark siders have never successfully mastered it, and besides, if there had been another force sensitive in the medical center, particularly a darksider, I doubt Master Yoda and I would have just been standing about."

"You know as well as I do that nothing is impossible in the force," Leia countered.

"Nothing but this! Look, the only Jedi Masters in the Order during my lifetime who had trained in morichro were Master Yaddle, who died several years before the Clone Wars began, and Master Yoda, who…" Obi Wan's eyes widened like saucers as the words left his lips, but as much as he wanted to deny it a part of him began to consider the events of that horrible day 17 years ago in a new light.

"Who, according to Bail, was standing behind a pane of transparent glass, mere feet away, with a direct line of sight to my mother," Leia finished for Kenobi.

So here they were, at the truth. Leia had spoken with her foster father when he'd come to see her on Corascant after her return from the Meridian Sector. During their reunion, Bail had spoken more openly about Leia's mother than he ever had before, and Leia had wanted to know everything, not merely to learn about the person who had given birth to her and her brother, but about the woman who still ruled her husband's heart and whose death haunted his every conscious hour.

When Bail could give her no answers as to her mother's demise, she had mediated on the subject until the truth had snuck into her suspicions, and the light side of the force would not deny them. It tried to offer her peace, but it refused to negate what she knew. She had come here to make sure it wasn't Kenobi who had done the deed or that Kenobi had not colluded with Yoda after the fact.

The look of shock and pain on the older human's face, as well as his equally disturbed reaction in the force, told her that he had been as deceived by Yoda in that moment on Polis Massa as Bail had been, but that was not surprising. Yoda had known Kenobi from infancy, and was centuries his senior. Performing such an obscure and subtle manipulation of the force, especially when Kenobi was already emotionally raw and on the edge of sanity from what had culminated on Mustafar, would have been simple enough for the ancient Jedi master to accomplish without alerting his human colleague to his actions.

If the little green troll had believed that the only way to save the Jedi Order and countless sentients from the oppression of the Sith was to kill an innocent woman and steal her children, Yoda would have made that choice resolutely and never questioned his actions. Kenobi had spent nearly two decades beating himself up in the deserts of Tatooine for far less morally ambiguous choices. No, Leia was certain Obi Wan Kenobi was at least innocent of her mother's demise and would likely have attempted to defend her had he known what Yoda had in mind. While Leia still had much to blame him for, that was not something she could lay at his feet.

Pulling himself together, Kenobi fixed his eyes on Leia. He couldn't afford to be swayed by the girl's words. Despite their history, she was still a Sith, one growing in power and command of the dark side with each passing day. He would meditate on what she was proposing later. Right now, he would be the Jedi Master Yoda and Qui Gon Jinn had trained him to be. He would stand against a Sith. "I've known Master Yoda all my life. He would never do something like you're proposing. The dark side is twisting your mind as it inevitably does anyone who embraces it."

"I'm fully aware of what the dark side does to ones' mind, Master Kenobi. It's a daily struggle just to keep it from influencing me towards actions I know I'll regret later on. However, I was meditating in the light when I came to this unfortunate realization. The dark side wanted a very different outcome to this meeting, but my long term goal is to bring permanent ceasefire and peaceful coexistence between the Sith and the Jedi, so once again, I've subdued the dark side in service to my own ends. I'm not some common darksider, Master Kenobi; I am a Sith. I serve the darkside, but I am not its slave," Leia insisted, not wanting to let the Jedi off that easy. It was the simplest thing in the galaxy for a Sith or Jedi not to trust the other, but Leia had come to realize that the 35 millennia of fighting was taking its toll on the force, and neither side could ever permanently defeat the other. It was an exercise in futility that had wasted hundreds of trillions of lives over the course of history.

"I thought the Sith Code denied the existence of peace," Kenobi rebutted. The girl obviously didn't understand the ways of the force as well as she thought she did. The dark and the light did not coexist peacefully, anymore than fire and water could share the same space without annihilating each other. It was a sad but real truth.

"Mistranslation, Master Kenobi. The Sith language, which the code was created in, had 4 different words that Jedi and Republic linguists translated into 'peace'. Peace in relation to the Sith code speaks of inner peace, tranquility, stillness to the point where the light side of the force takes control of your entire being. That form of peace is a lie. The peace I propose is socio-political peace, the kind of peace that exists when groups with competing interests decide to try and work out their differences rather than engage in armed conflict where victory would be more expensive than compromise. I don't believe it's possible for the Sith to ever conquer the Jedi completely, nor for the Jedi to eradicate the Sith, and thus the casualties to both parties and civilians are merely wasted lives in futile efforts. Still, there's too much history between the two for actual peace, so ceasefire and coexistence will have to do," Leia explained, totally serious, hoping Kenobi would see her point.

"An interesting point of view, but I fear a flawed one when the party that purports to be a peacemaker is holding hostages," Obi Wan stated matter of factly. Truthfully, he was intrigued by Leia's proposition, but she was a Sith, and the Jedi had been fooled before by a keen political mind claiming they sought peace. His first priority had to be freeing his brethren, if indeed the girl had a Jedi hostage.

"I don't hold any Jedi hostages. I have a Jedi teacher who still has much to teach me about the light side of the force and who I'm not eager to dismiss from my service. And honestly, it's nice having an older woman around, teaching me things, someone I don't have to worry over and protect. She could free herself any time, but she chooses to stay with me. I guess you could say I've grown very… attached to my Jedi teacher and don't want to loose her. Not to mention I'm not sure she'd want to leave me at the moment, especially to live here, on Tatooine, with you of all people," Leia added. She had kept Siri's existence a secret from Kenobi to give the older woman a choice and help cement trust between them, but Kenobi would want to see Leia's willing Jedi teacher, and saying no would shatter any potential cooperation she might receive from the old, yet still powerful, Jedi Master in taking down Palpatine.

On the other hand, she knew Siri would come to Kenobi's hovel if Leia desired it, particularly if it was sold to her as a way of gaining Kenobi's help in eliminating the Emperor. She'd see it as her duty, that her discomfort was irrelevant in the face of stopping the Sith, ending galactic tyranny, and freeing the remaining Jedi from persecution, but Leia didn't want Siri pushed into this reunion out of duty.

Kenobi could sense the deep affection Leia held for her teacher, but he had to ensure a fellow Jedi's safely if he could. "But if you care for her as much as you claim…"

"Look… I'll go to my teacher and ask her to come here. I won't demand it of her or incapacitate her with the dark side to drag her here, but I will ask in the name of peaceful coexistence that she visit you. I'll be staying with the Lars for the next five days. If she comes and if she chooses to stay with you beyond that period of time, I won't press her to return with me to Corascant. However, if she freely decides to remain my teacher, I expect you to honor her wishes," Leia finished, menacingly, letting a hint of gold tinge her pupils to get her point across.

Leia knew Siri still loved Obi Wan and that this bargain might result in her loosing her master for a time, but still she would give Siri the choice. After all, Siri would still be her servant, only one Leia was leaving here on Tatooine with Kenobi. She knew she could always call Siri back to her side anytime she wished, and having Siri on Tatooine would help to ensure Kenobi couldn't brainwash Luke against her or their father.

"Of course, but you haven't told me who I should expect," Kenobi responded, perfectly agreeable to allowing Leia's Jedi teacher to make up her own mind, but still having no idea who the Jedi in question was.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Heck, father didn't believe she was alive until he'd spoken with her and sensed her reality in the force. Even then he had me run her through a battery of medical tests to confirm she wasn't a clone or a very skilled imposter. Frankly, I found his lack of faith disturbing. But anyway, let's just say, if my teacher agrees to come she'll be here by the setting of the second sun this evening. You'll definitely know her when you see her… that is if you don't drop dead from shock," Leia laughed, sensing Kenobi's curiosity heightening.

"Alright, I'll expect her this evening," Kenobi agreed, sensing nothing but truth and mischief emanating from Leia. This disturbed him more than he would admit. On Mustafar all he had sensed from the body of his brother was the dark side. Anakin's essence had been missing, so he had been able to fight Vader without reservation. Palpatine was a shell, a mask worn by Darth Sideous, and from what Obi Wan had seen in holonet broadcasts since he arrived on Tatooine, he'd come to understand that Chancellor Palpatine had never truly existed at all.

Leia, however, was genuine. She spoke openly about who she was. She never hid her darkness or her ambition, but darkness and ambition weren't all that she was. There was a person, a moral, intelligent person, coexisting with a Sith in one body and Kenobi knew that if he ever had to strike her down, he would be killing both a Sith and an innocent young woman in the same stroke. He knew there was a very good chance he would hesitate; the Sith she was would not.

Obi Wan had to wonder if this was how Master Yoda had seen it all those years ago on Polis Massa. Padme had been innocent, but her actions had led the entire galaxy to the tragedy that was happening all around them. Her husband drew strength from her, and her husband was a Sith Lord. Her babies were the only hope the Jedi had, and Padme had planned to keep them, raising them to be good people but not necessarily the salvation the Jedi and the galaxy desperately needed.

However, as much as he could understand his old master's logic, he still grieved the woman that had been his friend, his best friend's wife, and Luke and Leia's mother. He would never have been able to do what he now believed Yoda might have done. He wasn't completely convinced, but if he were honest with himself, he knew it wasn't impossible, and it made sense of a situation that had never made sense to him before. Despite her age and inexperience, Leia was far more dangerous than her father, possibly even more dangerous than Sideous in the long term, and yet, once again, he would let her freely walk off his land.

As if sensing Kenobi's pondering her leaving, Leia stood up. She had gotten what she'd come for, even if she'd had to make concessions she hadn't anticipated making. She had to go back to the Lars homestead and speak with Siri. Her aunt and uncle were really remarkably kind people, taking in Siri along with her this time, even though Siri wasn't family and they had seen the two force users sparing this morning after breakfast. Leia hoped they understood that Luke wasn't the only draw Tatooine held on her heart. She promised herself she would make sure they knew it before she left five days hence.

As for Siri, the more Leia thought about it, the more comfortable she felt with the idea of leaving Siri here. She'd miss her and her lessons, but Siri could be quite valuable in watching Luke's watcher. Yes, she was a Jedi, but she was her own Jedi, just as Leia was her own Sith. Still, Leia's gut told her Siri would choose to return with her to Corascant. Siri had invested far too much time in Leia to walk away now, but if she needed more than 5 days to put her past and priorities in order, Leia could live with the temporary separation.

As Leia stepped out the front door of Kenobi's hovel, her mind reran itself over what she had learned this morning. She had to figure out what to do with these new truths, and more importantly, who to tell and who not to. At least she had five days to consider it, and she sensed being with Luke would help her.

Of course, she couldn't directly discuss any of this with him, but just being around him made her feel more whole. She'd never really believed in that twin bond thing you heard about on talk shows, but she and Luke weren't your usual twins; they were Skywalkers. They were not only bound by blood and birth, but in the Force as well. That had to mean something.

Leia sensed Kenobi following her to her speeder, and she turned back towards the old Jedi as he gentlemanly opened the door for her to get in. "I know you're worried I'm gonna go all nuts with the dark side and try to kill the little, green bantha dropping, but the truth is, I never knew my mother, and you can't really miss what you never knew. Daddy has been the best father any kid could have. If I hate Yoda for anything, it's for denying Luke a chance to know and love him as I do, but rushing to vengeance, particularly when I have so much more pressing work to do , would be foolhardy, a waste of valuable time, and unworthy of a Sith."

"But you will seek vengeance one day, won't you?" Kenobi asked wearily, knowing she'd one day try to murder his old master. While Obi Wan could sense that Leia hadn't lied to him, he could also feel her anger went far deeper than Luke's deprivation of their father. She might have it under control at the moment, but it was still very much present, as if on slow boil.

"Honestly, I don't know. Vengeance against someone like Master Yoda is tricky, and it's not just his being a better swordsman, having far greater life experience to draw from, or even his strength in the force. No, Yoda would be hard to break because after so many years as a Jedi, his individuality, his sense of self, has been almost completely drowned by the force. That's why it was so simple for him to murder my mother. There isn't really that much of a person left to take vengeance on," Leia surmised, the conundrum something she would think about later. Vengeance was in order; that much Leia knew in her soul, but she also knew she wouldn't have it for some while, not until she had a better handle on who Yoda was and how to make him suffer as her mother's absence these seventeen years had made her father suffer.

"Master Yoda would be honored by that assessment," Obi Wan stated flatly, Yoda's implacable nature no longer giving him the comfort it had given him all his life.

"Master Yoda would kill me before I could even open my mouth to make that assessment. The moment he sensed my strength in the force, coupled with my connection to the dark side, I would be as good as dead and he would end my life with the same unshakable confidence that he was doing the will of the Force as when he murdered my mother," Leia insisted, knowing she spoke the truth, but also needing to weaken Kenobi enough to escape. She had no doubt he was indecisive about whether or not he would permit her to leave his hovel this time around.

The first time they'd met, they had come to an agreement; Luke and the Lars must continue to be protected by Kenobi, and Leia would leave Tatooine the next day to continue her mission to ultimately bring down Sideous. Both had left the encounter with greater understanding and there were no significant risks taken that day. Now she, a Sith, would have to be trusted not to run amuck and kill someone Kenobi could not allow to be killed, but whom Leia and her beloved father had every reason to seek vengeance against.

"May have murdered your mother, Miss Skywalker," Kenobi corrected, still not 100% convinced of his former teacher's guilt on the matter.

"May have murdered my mother," Leia stated, rolling her eyes at Kenobi's last grasp at hero worship. She understood it, but honestly, she didn't care about Obi Wan's inner turmoil. After what he'd done to her father, and to her and Luke, she was glad to cause him any pain or distress she possibly could. He deserved it and so much more. Leia felt the dark side concur, and she took a moment to savor its confidence.

As Leia started the speeder's engine, Kenobi grabbed it with the force, necessitating Leia to idle the vehicle. "What do you plan to tell your father about what we discussed here today, about Yoda?"

"You've been out in the suns too long if you think I'm gonna answer any of your questions without getting something in return. So, Master Kenobi, what do you have to offer me if I answer you now?" Leia mocked the annoying Jedi. She had believed them through with the conversation, and she wanted to get back to the Lars homestead. The extensive drive would give her time to organize her feelings and gain greater control of her anger so that the dark side couldn't turn it against her interests. Now her attention and control reasserted quickly.

"Your life," Kenobi stated firmly, igniting his saber and using the force to shut off the speeder's engine.

"Funny, I thought killing force-sensitive children was father's shtick. Maybe there's room for you on the dark side after all, Master Kenobi," Leia shot back, knowing her father's killing of the Jedi younglings would be a particular sore spot with the old man in front of her.

"You find what your father did to those younglings at the temple something to joke about?" Obi Wan asked with disappointment. He remembered Vader explaining how from his point of view the Jedi were evil and Obi Wan hated to think that was the perspective Leia held.

"What do you think would have happened to those younglings if Father hadn't ended their lives? What do you think Sideous would have done to them, or more accurately, with them?" Leia postulated, wanting to confuse Kenobi even more. She was playing a dangerous game here. She had to unhinge Kenobi enough to get back to the Lars homestead, but not enough to make him truly regret letting her live the last time they'd met. Still, it was a game she played daily with Siri Tachi. She was a skilled player.

"Point taken," Kenobi admitted, completely unconvinced by where the girl was taking this argument, but not interested in debating what was already a painful subject for him with someone who obviously relished a good argument as much as her mother once had. From what little he knew about her, one thing was certain, her tongue was as deadly as her lightsaber.

As much as the idea of killing kids disturbed her, Leia also knew that like herself, Jedi were trained young, so that even the littlest ones were potential future threats if their indoctrination, which began even earlier than their martial instruction, had taken hold. Killing the younglings then had made sure they could never be used to unseat the Sith, or strengthen the Emperor had their lives been spared and they'd been taken and trained as Emperor's Hands or Inquisitors. Considering the last two alternatives, from a certain point of view, her father had euthanized them, freeing them back into the force and sparing them from a far worse fate, one he'd gladly embraced to save his wife and children.

Her love for her father and his many sacrifices on her behalf flooded her heart at that moment and the dark side retreated a bit more, but it didn't matter. Her point was made. She was not obligated to answer any Jedi's questions unless she chose to. She would not be bullied by such weak beings, nor would any non force-sensitive sentients in any empire she held sway over. She would see to it that the Jedi never reclaimed civil authority when Sideous was taken out and the criminal decrees against the Jedi were lifted. The remaining Jedi had a right to life and self determination, not to power over others, and certainly not to implement legally sanctioned violence, as they had in the days of the Republic. But that was a debate for another time. Getting into a Jedi/Sith pissing contest here wasn't necessary and would be counterproductive.

"I won't tell my father of what I've learned today until I feel he can absorb it rationally, or I figure out a way to make Yoda suffer to my satisfaction. To Yoda, dying at the hands of two vengeful Sith would be a reward, martyrdom, a well-earned rest, and I'm not feeling at all generous where he's concerned. He's safe for now," Leia explained, making sure her contempt was heard, even if it wasn't accompanied by the dark side.

Obi Wan mulled over what he'd just heard, but still had not released the speeder.

"If I don't get back to my aunt and uncle's homestead, I can't very well send my Jedi teacher to you, now can I?" Leia stated, rolling her eyes with exaggerated annoyance. She knew Kenobi was right where she wanted him psychologically. She could feel it. He just needed this extra push and she'd be tuning up swoop bikes with Luke in under two hours.

Kenobi released the speeder's engine, and Leia started it up again. Getting another mischievous smile, Leia called out over the engine. "See you in five days, Master Kenobi. And in regards to my Jedi teacher, I don't want her coming home with Tatooine crabs. Remember 'no glove, no love."

"What?!" Kenobi exclaimed, completely confused at Leia's last statement, which he'd recently heard in a public service announcement about STD prevention, while shopping for supplies in Mos Eisley.

But it was too late. The speeder was already just a dust cloud on the horizon. Sighing, Obi Wan shook his head and returned to his home, his mind shifting to greeting the guest that would likely arrive this evening.


	2. Chapter 2

12

** Needs**

By Arianwen P.F. Everett

As Siri Tachi made her way into the modest bedroom Owen and Beru Lars had offered her and their niece, Leia Organa Naberrie Skywalker, upon their arrival on Tatooine yesterday, she was suddenly caught in the face by a flying piece of green shimmersilk.

"Too tame; everything I own is too tame! What female Darksider doesn't own at least one decent article of lingerie? Mara Jade probably has so many outfits she needs a Corellian corvette to lug them all from assignment to assignment, and I have zippo, nada, zilch! I can accept dying old and alone… save the power of the dark side, but I'll be damned if I end up dragging poor Siri down with me!" Leia bereted her herself, searching for something she knew was not there, but felt should be.

"Don't you think it's a bit early to despair of dying old and alone when you haven't even reached your majority yet? And what do I have to do with it, anyway?" Siri asked. Her new padawan could really make her laugh sometimes.

"Oh, you're back. I thought you'd be meditating longer," Leia commented offhandedly, as she briefly looked up at Siri, then resumed reviewing the wardrobe she had spread all over the bed.

"I thought I would be too, but the dark energies you father left here, made it… difficult," Siri replied, sighing in sadness. The second she'd opened herself to the force, Anakin's past pain at this homestead had ripped at her heart. The place was saturated with his suffering so many years ago, and the nausea Siri had felt, as she forced her old friend's psychic wails of agony out of her own mind, returned fresh.

"I know. I nearly went mad when I went to visit my grandmother's grave last time I was here. I hadn't even dropped my shields and it just… ambushed me. If my mother and grandmother's essences hadn't also been there, hadn't been there for Father back then, I know Uncle Owen would be dead right now. I would have lost complete control. I'd advise staying away from there," Leia insisted, her current task forgotten, as the fear her previous encounter with her father's grief had taught her heart resurfaced. She'd never truly feared her father. Even after she'd first told him about Luke, when he began a force choke on her, she knew his love for her would stop him. But the person her father had been at her grandmother's gravesite two decades ago terrified her more than she wanted to admit. If they weren't careful, one day it could be her at his grave, living that same horrid pain and self recrimination.

"Thank you for warning me," Siri said, patting Leia on the shoulder as they sat together in silence.

"I hate those Tuskans! To hell with Kenobi seeing my.. work. I should have killed more of them, at least backtracked to their camp and finished off that lot last time I was here," Leia grumbled, forcing her mind back to her previous task, as searching for a nonexistent garment beat stewing in regret over a missed opportunity any day. She'd killed enough Tuskans that day to achieve her goal and to pursue those that had remained at their camp would have required her to leave Luke unconscious, alone, and unprotected in the middle of the desert. Kenobi's showing up really hadn't altered her body count out near Beggar's Canyon a few months ago, and in the end, her meeting him had all been for the best.

"Leia…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're gonna say, 'Wonton killing is a waste of the force'. On the other hand, the Sandpeople's existence is also a waste of the force, so from a certain point of view, wasting Tuskans with the Dark side is really just a case of two negatives canceling each other out." Leia theorized, chuckling at the long suffering look on Siri's face.

Before Siri could respond, Luke Skywalker ran into the Lars guestroom carrying a small bag, the contents of which he obviously placed great store in. "I got it, Leia, but you know I'm not sure…"

"Well I'm sure Aunt Beru deserves more than that little bottle of perfume to commemorate her lifeday. She deserves to be treated like a Queen. And Siri only needs to smell good for 5 days, so that little bottle will do for her. Now, give me," Leia cut her twin off, tossing him a credit chit with 2000 credits on it.

Luke had worked two hours a day after school at Toshi station for the past four months and did a few extra chores on the farm to buy the tiny bottle in his hands for their Aunt's 40th lifeday. Now, he'd be able to buy her a bottle nearly three times as big with Leia's quick and easy credits, if only he'd hand over the small bottle that had been purchased with his sweat and sacrifice.

The ironic thing was, he'd been so proud of himself and that little bottle. He'd known Aunt Beru would love it and the work behind it, but then his sister… relative, Leia had shown him her gift, a simple, but exquisite, gold chrono, and Luke had truly seen how paltry his gift was by comparison. Then she'd gone out this morning to see Old Man Kenobi to thank him for saving them from the sand people last time she'd been here, and the next thing Luke knew she was making him this offer. While his head said it was great fortune, a once in a lifetime opportunity, something indefinable, deep inside, told him to refuse.

"But I worked so hard for this bottle, and Aunt Beru always says it's the thought that counts. Can't you just lend you friend some of your perfume? It's probably more expensive at any rate," Luke commented glumly.

He loved Leia, but she was pushy at times and she was rich. He lived with Beru Lars, loved her as much as he could have loved his real mother had he been given the chance to know her. Yet in his mind's eye he could see Beru a few days from now, cooing over her new chrono when next her sister and friends came to visit, having saved his little bottle of perfume for 'a special occasion', one that on Tatooine would likely never come.

Luke had to admit, he was jealous, and the feeling sickened him. If less than a week at Leia's side over seventeen years was affecting him this much, maybe it truly was for the best he'd never had a real sibling. This idea was further confirmed by the look on his 'sister's' face. "Let's continue this in the courtyard. This is a family matter, not for certain ears."

"She means 'not for certain mouths to weigh in on'. Honestly Luke, I don't need any perfume; I have no one to impress. You worked hard to get your Aunt something special. She'll treasure that even more than the perfume itself," Siri insisted, knowing Leia hadn't set out to test Luke, but was grabbing the unexpected opportunity just the same.

Besides, if Leia was thinking what Siri thought she was thinking in regards to her using the perfume, her padawan was chasing the wrong bantha… or gundark… on this one. Obi Wan Kenobi wasn't your ordinary male. Fancy perfume would more likely send him into a sneezing fit than inspire his ardor.

Truth was, Siri wasn't sure what, if anything, she wanted to inspire in Obi Wan. She knew it would be hard for him to see her again after all this time, and he would probably start out believing she was a trick of Leia's or some sort of Imperial project meant to hook him after all these years on the run. Heck, Siri herself didn't know for sure if she was or wasn't in regards to the latter. However, she knew once Obi Wan sensed her force signature, and they had spoken and reminisced, he would come to believe in her reality and she had to wonder what would happen then.

Even after they had sworn to keep the Jedi way and deny their feelings for one another, they would often jest of growing old together, envisioning a bench in the Room of a Thousand Fountains to sit on when they had grown too old to be of use and needed a quiet space within the temple to wait out the Force's call home in their final days. Less than a year before the Clone Wars had begun, on a lark, the two had even gone so far as to stake out _their_ bench from the sixty that the massive indoor garden provided the Jedi that had called the temple home.

While Leia had described Obi Wan's current living arrangements as small, Siri only had her saber, and the few meager possessions of a Jedi. Despite her age and the imminence of her death that she felt through the Force more and more keenly each day, a part of her was intrigued by the possibility of a home, in the middle of the Dune Sea, shared with the man she'd loved since she was younger than her padawan was now. Even if it was just for a few days and they continued to hold to their decades-old vow to remain completely platonic, Siri was sure it would be significant for the both of them. Rarely did the Force give you the opportunity to actually live out what-could-have-beens.

"Perhaps we're the ones who should visit the courtyard? Excuse us, Luke," Leia insisted, nodding an order to Siri to come outside with her to talk. As the mid afternoon suns hit them, they found a shady area of the courtyard to sit down.

"What was that all about, my Padawan?" Siri began, as Leia shot up and started pacing.

"The only reason I'm sending you to Kenobi's this evening is to prove to him that you're not my hostage but my teacher. His help in bringing down the Emperor will be invaluable, so I'm going above and beyond to prove I take good care of you. And truth be told, I want to rub his nose in the fact that all he can give you is a harsh reality and a hovel in the Dune Sea, while father and I can offer you safety and adorn you in expensive shimmer silks and the finest perfumes. If I shame him in his poverty, he'll be less likely to try to convince you to stay with him when I leave in a few days," Leia admitted, smiling at her subtle swipe at Kenobi's masculine pride, even if as a Jedi he wasn't supposed to have any.

"You make me sound like a courtesan," Siri grumbled at her padawan's statement. She knew it was just bravado, that the real reason Leia was doing what she was doing lay deeper, but Siri had also learned that with Leia you didn't have a snowball's chance on this planet of getting to the heart of the matter without first enduring the bravado and childish humor, just one more way the daughter was like the father at this age.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. He's likely to think you're a fraud, at least at first. I'm really sorry to put you in this position, but like I said, he thinks my Jedi teacher is some broken slave who lost their faith in the force and is being exploited by a Sith Lord and his kid. He has easy access to Luke, and if he were to lose confidence in my capacity for benevolence, he'd snatch Luke and run. As bad as that would be for me and Father, it would kill my aunt and uncle," Leia worried, trying not to think of Owen and Beru loosing the boy they loved as a son.

"Leia, protecting and eventually training Luke is his duty," Siri tried to explain, knowing Leia would balk.

"And my Aunt and Uncle's duty is what… playing the poor, ignorant saps who take on all the risk and expense, but have no say in what happens to the child they raised from infancy? At least Bail knew something of what he was getting into when he took me on! Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were led to believe our father, their stepbrother, was dead and they Luke's only surviving family! Please don't try to spout some convoluted Jedi nonsense that justifies the deceit Kenobi has played out on two simple moisture farmers who only wanted to honor my grandmother's memory and do right by what they'd been led to believe was her sole grandchild!" Leia spat, her anger at the way her entire family had been abused fueling her words.

"Maybe Obi Wan shouldn't have lied to your aunt and uncle, but…"

"There are no butts, Siri! There is no moral justification for Kenobi here! This kind of thing is exactly why the war between the Sith and the Jedi must end! There has to be some higher law; the Force has to be more than just the sum of those two parts, else the ends really do justify the means, and I'm not willing to concede to that," Leia sighed in frustration, as her spent anger and the mid-day heat left her needing to sit down for a moment.

"And you shouldn't. The Force is infinite; our understanding is what's finite, my padawan," Siri explained, the old Jedi proverb springing to her lips. While not a natural philosopher, Siri had to admit Leia had a way of making her meditate on the Force's nature and will, which Siri had been raised to believe was always a good thing to do before taking action.

"That's a Jedi proverb isn't it?" Leia asked, having learned over these past few months to distinguish Siri's dogma-reciting voice from her usual teaching and advising style.

Siri nodded.

"I may not ascribe to all the Sith ideals, but one I know to be true is that there are many paths to power. All I require from Kenobi is his acceptance that I'm taking a different route and that that fact alone isn't a legitimate enough reason for him to end my life or the lives of those who follow me," Leia succinctly stated

"He let you go twice so far. What makes you think he'll want to kill you now?" Siri asked, placing a placating hand on her student's shoulder.

"I have you. It's one thing for me to have some unnamed Jedi teacher, but once he realizes that it's you, the genuine Siri Tachi, all bets are off. Placing you with Kenobi gives me leverage in a stand off. Right now, taking Luke away would be easy for him; no way could I defend myself. If there were no other options and I sensed my life was in immediate danger, I'd try to kill him before he killed me, but realistically my chances in that scenario wouldn't be stellar. You can make him see there's no need to take such drastic action, that by working with me and father he has a real chance of destroying Sideous and ending the exile of what remains of the Jedi. My father tells me that during the Clone Wars, the holonet reporters nicknamed General Kenobi 'The Negotiator'. Every negotiator knows that sometimes you have to compromise a little to get what you need, if not necessarily everything you want. Without you in the equation, Kenobi might loose sight of that, so in a way you'll be safekeeping his life as well as mine with your presence," Leia insisted unequivocally.

"Leia, Anakin deceived him before. He might be willing to trust you because you've held up your end of the bargain so far, but your father will likely be too much of a compromise," Siri stated. Leia worshiped her father and sometimes it was hard for her to accept that many, many others despised him with the same vehemence.

"Then he forfeits Luke and with Luke any hope for the Jedi Order. The only way to separate me from father is to kill me. If Kenobi hadn't figured that out the last time we met, he surely knows it after the talk we had this morning. Luke would never alley himself with my killer, and I seriously doubt Kenobi could bring himself to arrange an 'accident' to keep you from informing Luke as to why I wouldn't be returning to our uncle's homestead, except possibly to be buried with our grandmother. What I need is for you to refuse to lie to Luke and my aunt and uncle. Tell Kenobi that and he will choose to work with me, even if Father is part of the deal… and he is part of the deal, even more for Luke's sake than my own. Siri, there's a hole in Luke's heart, a place only father's love can fill. I know it exists because until I met Father that same empty space existed inside me as well. No matter how much Bail loved me, the force still let me know there was more out there, the way it's now telling Luke no matter how much Uncle Owen wants him to stay here. Inevitably it will pull Luke off Tatooine and towards Father. Kenobi and Yoda's whole plan to restore the Jedi to power depends on perverting that bond, keeping Luke ignorant of the fact that one of the two men they send him to kill is his own father, a father who already loves him unconditionally. I know you, Siri, and I have faith that you won't allow yourself to become a part of that deceit. You understand that the ends can't justify the means, and if the new Jedi Order Luke is destined to forge is founded on manipulation and patricide, your people will be far worse off in the long run than if they had remained in exile," Leia explained, letting her faith in her Jedi teacher flow through their own bond.

"If we remain in exile much longer, with your father and Palpatine's other minions hunting us, there won't be any Jedi left," Siri sighed, needing Leia to understand the desperation Master Yoda and Obi Wan were working under for them to even consider the plans they had set in motion. Leia was correct in the moral morass involved, but stripping away the immediate situation, Leia was asking her to take the entire future of the Jedi Order out of Master Yoda's hands and place it into those of a teenaged Sith, something she couldn't do.

"Once Palpatine is dead, Father can call off the purge, and even if something was to happen to us, and Palpatine succeeded in hunting down all the living Jedi, the Order would eventually rise again. The Sith were exterminated completely, not once but twice, and that was before the final battle at Ruusan where only one Sith survived. Yet, a thousand years later, even as we speak, Darth Sideous rules the galaxy. There are thousands of Jedi holocrons still out there waiting to be discovered, and stories of the Jedi Order will be whispered far and wide, even if the Empire were to continue unchallenged for ten millennia. In time somebody would come along to restore what was lost. The pitiful fact is that Yoda and Kenobi can't die peacefully knowing the Sith are in power, and if the entire Skywalker family is destroyed in their quest to reclaim their lost peace before they return to the force, so be it. You're better than that, Siri, and what's more I believe Kenobi is better than that. He just needs you to remind him. He won't listen to me," Leia explained, needing Siri to understand that even Yoda and Kenobi's protests of survival weren't justification for using Luke like they'd planned, forever burdening him with the guilt of killing his family.

Siri sighed. Leia thought so far ahead sometimes that it gave the older Jedi a migraine trying to keep up. Despite Vader's claim that Leia's complex mind was a genetic gift from his deceased wife, Siri had a different take on the matter. She believed Leia's ability to use both the dark and the light sides of the force enabled her to channel the unified force itself and make its will known. Whether Leia realized what she was doing, Siri couldn't say, and this reason above all others left her eager for her visit with Obi Wan this evening. She needed another Jedi to help her figure out what it all meant and how best to respond, even if the other Jedi was her old agemate and the meeting brought up confusing feelings.

She remembered the temple whispers of her youth that told of how Master Qui Gon was uniquely bound to the living force, and that was why he often came into conflict with the Council. This had seemed strange to Siri, as Master Yoda had always taught the younglings to respect both the living and unifying aspects of the force equally. She hadn't understood why the wise Jedi Council was more often than not in disagreement with someone who heard the living force's will so clearly.

It was only after the Clone Wars, when she'd escaped that strange lab she had awoken in and learned of the purges and the rise of the Sith, that she'd begun to understand. During that time she had had to move constantly until she found a settlement on Dantooine where her cover was unlikely to be blown. It was living not as a Jedi, but as a poor Imperial citizen on a backwater planet that taught her that the Jedi had been very privileged.

She had always known about the poverty in the Outer Rim worlds beyond the Republic. She'd worked that territory undercover, exposing criminal slavery operations on the borders of Republic space, seeing destitution firsthand, but Dantooine had been a Republic world for millennia and yet the people there scratched out a basic living in the actual dirt of the planet's crust. The Jedi had lived in the highest towers in the wealthiest part of the upper city of Corascant. Even with every individual Jedi forsaking personal possessions, the Order had had wealth and the influence that went with it.

As a result, the Jedi Council had been out of touch with people like those who lived on Dantooine, as well as those who lived on planets like Kuat where you had disparities between rich and poor that were mind-boggling in their extremity. When the Jedi had dealt with planetary leaders, they had been dealing with hand-picked elites who were more often than not using the Jedi to provide public services that these planets should have set aside resources to handle themselves such as evacuation plans for natural disasters, or stamping out spice runners who on one hand poisoned the downtrodden with their addictive products, but also employed them when their wealthier counterparts wouldn't offer productive jobs that paid a living wage. As a result, when Darth Sideous had been gaining power through dividing the Republic, the elites abandoned the Jedi as they had long ago abandoned their own less well off citizens, and the poor were still too occupied with survival to care what was happening in the greater galaxy.

In many ways the Jedi Council's political machinations had diminished its connection with the living force, and Master Qui Gon's uncompromising affinity with it had shamed them.

Siri knew Leia was twice cursed, for she shamed both Jedi and Sith alike with her dreams of a universe where Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi would again fight back to back as they once had when the Sith Lord went by the name of Anakin Skywalker. Still, Siri had always sensed the depth of the bond the two had shared, and she had to wonder if it Leia was right, and reconciliation was possible for her two old friends. "Alright, I'll go. For your sake, and Luke's, I'll go."

"And for the sake of true love," Leia teased, scrunching her face into an amusing shape to make Siri laugh.

"Leia, Obi Wan and I were never like that. I'll admit that I've always felt very strongly for him, and when I was your age, I did want…more with him, but…"

"Oh please! If you weren't still crazy about him, you wouldn't have been so apprehensive to see him last time we were here. The fact that going is difficult for you proves you still don't trust your desires with regards to him," Leia cut her friend and teacher off, rolling her eyes at Siri's rationalizing her relationship with Kenobi.

"My desires? Padawan, you've been watching too many Wynessa Starflare holos! I'm going into the Dune Sea to talk with Obi Wan, like you've asked me to, not tumble into bed with him like a couple of sex-crazed adolescents!" Siri defended, determined to make Leia come down out of her overly romantic fantasies.

"Why can't you do both?" Leia winked, knowing she'd further frustrate her Jedi teacher.

"Why are you pressing this? What business is it of yours if Obi Wan and I… reconnect?" Siri responded, her question asked in a serious tone. This meant a lot to her padawan, far more than it rationally should. Logically this was supposed to be about protecting Luke and forging the initial bonds of a Sith/Jedi alliance against Sideous, but Siri felt Leia's own heart was involved in the outcome of this meeting. She was inordinately invested, and as her master, Siri needed to know why.

"Oooh! So you're admitting there was an initial… connection! Tell me more!" Leia begged, rabid for gossip to share with her father, who Siri remembered was himself a gossip monger under the right circumstances.

"Leia!" Siri scolded, knowing she had to shut down her student's teasing before she became carried away by it. Siri had to leave the Lars homestead within the hour if she were to make it to Kenobi's by nightfall, and she didn't have time for Leia to get lost in her childish needling.

"Siri, don't you get it! You and Kenobi are like a fairytale come to life! Two young, beautiful Jedi, foreswearing their love in order to fulfill their duty, only to find each other once again at the end of their lives, when they've lost their youth and physical beauty, but not their love for one another! If you two are able to make it work, then there's hope for every other force sensitive to find a little love and happiness in this galaxy!" Leia explained, the anticipation and excitement bubbling over with each consecutive word.

"Including yourself," Siri surmised with new understanding. Both the Sith and the Jedi in their present incarnations rejected loving, romantic relationships. Their reasons couldn't be more diverse, but the end result was that Leia had no model to base what such a relationship would look like when one or both parties was force sensitive. Being a Skywalker, Leia naturally placed her greatest store in the stability of her familial relationships, including the ability to forge new bonds with some future husband and any children that resulted from that union. If there was one thing Siri had learned in regards to their family it was that to a Skywalker, power in any form was hollow without loved ones to share it with, and to a Sith power was the only ambition worthy of aspiration. Leia desperately needed to know love and force power were compatible, and she wanted Siri and Obi Wan to provide the example.

Now Siri needed Obi Wan's advice more than ever. Within weeks of their pact to refrain from starting a romantic relationship, Siri had known that Obi Wan had been right. Being a Jedi had meant far too much to both of them to leave the Order, and it still did. Even after all that had transpired, Siri felt that she and Obi Wan had more work to do, and that ultimately they walked two separate paths. They would reunite permanently in the Force one day, but Siri would return with Leia to Corascant this week. That was the will of the Force, even if it wasn't the will of Leia Skywalker.

Still, Siri didn't know how to break it to the girl that she and Kenobi couldn't be what Leia wanted them to be. Perhaps this was why the Force was giving them this opportunity to see each other again; not so much a lesson for two old Jedi but for one young Sith.

"Ofcourse! And Luke… and Father, maybe, once he's out of that suit. You said it yourself; he was very handsome when he was younger. If I can figure out a way to get him healed, he could be a Grade A hottie again. A middle-aged hottie, but still something some special woman might be interested in," Leia surmised, her face expressing the myriad of emotions that had arrived with this new idea.

Leia had always known that she would marry and have children some day. The force had told her as much, even if it wouldn't give her names or details. It wasn't her destiny to live alone. The force refused to guarantee the same for her father, and Leia knew she couldn't permit herself to fall in love and have a family if it meant leaving father to face life on his own. Either her father found love again, or he'd spend his final years living with her or Luke, most likely her as she was his apprentice and Luke's destiny was with the Jedi.

"Padawan, pairing up the entire galaxy won't guarantee you a happily-ever-after, or your father, or Luke for that matter, but being force sensitive doesn't automatically condemn you to loneliness either. You've talked about you and your brother finding a different way for the Sith and the Jedi. If so than it's also up to the two of you to find your own destinies, including your own loves," Siri reasoned. It was odd. She'd never been in an intimate relationship, yet she knew deep in her bones what Leia needed to hear. Perhaps she too was being opened up to the will of the Unified Force through her friendship with Leia.

"Do you really think Father would voluntarily go looking for love again after what happened the last time?" Leia asked wearily. She hated to admit it, but the further down the road she looked, the more and more her father appeared a burden in his current state of mind. What man would be nerfherder-crazy enough to fall in love with her if he knew Darth Vader being at the mealtable every morning was part of the deal?

"No," Siri replied, saddened by the admission. The Anakin Siri remembered had always given of himself with a free heart. Vader couldn't. That part of her old friend truly was dead, and she mourned it.

"Exactly! He would never think of finding someone for himself, so I must think of it for him," Leia stated with finality. She would begin putting together a list of appropriate women after supper tonight. Perhaps she could ask Luke some questions about what he looked for in girls to get a few ideas on the matter. After all, it was a well known fact that human fathers and sons ultimately sought similar qualities in women.

"I don't doubt you will, but we'll have to continue this discussion later if I'm to make it to Obi Wan's home," Siri said, gently kicking a stone on the edge of a small patch of cactus-like vegetables that Siri did not recognize and could only assume must be part of Beru Lars gardening effort.

"The coordinates to Kenobi's place are already in the speeder's nav computer; just search under the word 'Ben'. It's what Luke calls Kenobi, so I'm guessing it's the name he's going by these days. I've pretty much got the carryon I was packing for you finished, and I've picked out an appropriate traveling outfit. Get the perfume from Luke, and I'm not fooling around on that. Luke agreed to sell me the perfume. He put his word behind it. Luke's destiny is not only with the Jedi, but with the Rebellion as well, and to people like Mon Mothma and my foster father, keeping your word is crucial," Leia explained, knowing Siri was hesitant to approach Luke about the perfume. Luke needed to learn to make adult decisions and live with his choices. The fate of a bottle of expensive perfume was a small thing, but then again, as one of Siri's Jedi expressions stated, a 1000 kilometer march began with a single step.

"If you deem it that important, I'll ask Luke for the perfume. However I doubt it will serve your true purpose. I've never known Obi Wan to notice things like perfume or expensive fabrics. On at least two separate missions I remember that lack of attention to feminine detail nearly blew our cover," remembering the better times and the missions they'd gone on. Obi Wan had never been a ladies' man, but women had swooned regardless. Still, she'd never felt jealous. In her arrogant youth she'd believed that it was her Jedi training, and her certitude in Kenobi's dedication to achieve perfect detachment. Now she saw things differently. Kenobi hadn't looked because he knew love was something he couldn't have. Their relationship hadn't been a positive affirmation of their commitment to the Jedi Order, but an acceptance of unjust rules they were both bound by and could not change.

"At the very least Aunt Beru will get a bottle of perfume worthy of her, and you and Kenobi have a conversation starter. Now, hurry up, or you'll be stuck out in the desert at night, get eaten by a Krayct dragon, and Kenobi will assume I set you up once he finds the speeder and your mangled carcass. Maybe I should drive you out there, as a show of good faith. Stay over and come back in the morning," Leia considered, mentally weighing the pros and cons.

"I would prefer to go alone. It will be harder for Obi Wan to accept my reality if he feels he's being studied. Besides, I'm not helpless, Padawan. If it came to it, I believe I could defend myself against the life forms of the Dune Sea for a single night," Siri insisted. Leia could be as overprotective of her at times.

"At least take a comm link with you. Kenobi might be unconvincible and kick you out into the sand. He seems as sane and rational as you and father remember him, but I've only spoken to him briefly on two occasions. If the years of exile have damaged him more deeply than I've witnessed, you might have to make good on that claim," Leia warmed, tossing her master a small, portable link. The speeder Siri was taking had one onboard, but its range was limited. This was an imperial model.

"Alright Leia, but really, I must…"

"Go. Go. Don't want to be late, after all," Leia commented, smiling at Siri. The girl would hold to her assertion that Siri was hers to command till the day she returned to the Force. Siri could only hope that day was many decades hence.

As Leia watched her Jedi teacher return to Owen and Beru's home, she touched the force and sighed. The darkness in her master was still there, eating away at her. It was only a matter of time till Siri would leave her permanently, but Siri had lived her entire life in service to others. It wasn't fair, but the past was unalterable, and Leia knew Siri wouldn't want her to alter her future demise either. While she could live with Siri's choice, Leia was determined that she would at least have five days for herself before the end.


End file.
